Mike Greenlar/The Post-StandardAssistant Superintendent William Hamilton, at right, talks about his suspension from the Jordan Elbridge School District. Anthony Scro at left was fired by the district.

Jordan, NY — In his most recent job evaluation, Jordan-Elbridge Assistant Superintendent William Hamilton received much praise from his supervisor, school Superintendent Marilyn Dominick.

“Bill Hamilton is an extremely valuable asset to the Jordan-Elbridge Central School District learning community,” Dominick wrote in her review of Hamilton’s job performance. “He has consistently acted in the best interest of the learning community, and is very supportive of district initiatives. He has a passion to continually improve systems and has excellent leadership skills to move all members of the learning community toward their goals.”

The charges

The Post-Standard has obtained the charges filed against Jordan-Elbridge Assistant Superintendent William Hamilton. The school district refused to release the charges. You can read the charges and Hamilton's defense on the charges below.

The praise came too late to keep Hamilton on his job.

He was suspended with pay July 9 in advance of a school board move to fire him. The job evaluation was dated July 19.

The board has begun the process to have Hamilton removed. That procedure, called a 3020A proceeding after the section of state Education Law, is at the opening stage of a process that likely will take several months to complete.

In the end, the district could end up like the Liverpool school district, which spent more than $1 million during 35 months in an unsuccessful attempt to fire two administrators.

The evaluation notes achievements in anticipating state revenue, implementing a semi-monthly pay system and overseeing improvements in technology like the installation of fiber optic cable between the district’s three campuses.

Hamilton’s efforts turned a $100,000 annual loss from the district’s food service program into a $100,000 profit, the evaluation noted.

The review went on for five pages: four pages of praise and one page containing three recommendations for improvement:

Hamilton needed to improve communication with Dominick and the school board.

He needed to review carefully financial reports from his office to the board.

He needed to improve his approach to labor negotiations in light of hard feelings with bus drivers over their contract.

About the same time Dominick was completing her job evaluation, the school board was preparing it’s own evaluation of Hamilton’s performance.

The board found 128 shortcomings in his performance, questioning things like using a school district credit card to pay a personal New York City parking ticket and deleting e-mails and calendars from his school e-mail account.

Hamilton said the charges are false. The ticket was for a district school bus, according to responses filed, he said. The e-mail and calendars were not deleted; they were moved automatically to his archive folder after 30 days.